HOT TYPE

Dana Spiotta's stunning, virtuoso novel Stone Arabia (Scribner) plays out the A and B sides of a sibling bond between a brother—now a reclusive middle-aged musician who, seeing his shot at rock superstardom burn out, obsesses over his scrapbooks, a fantasy version of his career—and his idolizing younger sister and enabler, now a mom, who strives for family harmony.

Paying for it: The notorious Nicholson Baker, grand master of minutiae, famously elevates the trivial to the level of high art and the deeply personal; nowhere is this gift for the explicit more heralded than in his erotic novels— with House of Holes (Simon & Schuster), “a book of raunch,” he reaches new heights of perversity and humor. Francis Levy's sex-tourist hero is sucked into a psychoanalytic convention during his Seven Days in Rio (Two Dollar Radio). Madmen: Nassir Ghaemi credits A First-Rcite Madness (Penguin), namely mood disorders like depression and mania, with producing resilient, empathetic leaders, such as Churchill and Gandhi, exceptionally well-equipped to lead in times of crisis. In Skyjack (Crown), Geoffrey Gray tracks the hijacker known as the Robin Hood of the Sky, who 40 years ago jumped from a plane with a fortune and disappeared, tfer-hacker (reformed) Kevin Mitnick decodes his life as Ghost in the Wires (Little, Brown).

National disasters: Turmoil and controversy swirl around the plans for a fitting memorial to those killed in a terrorist attack in Amy Waldman's debut novel, The Submission (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Katrina hit New Orleans’s greatest resource—its music scene—hard; Keith Sera shows that the music plays on despite having its Groove Interrupted (St. Martin’s).

Also this month: John Burnham Schwartz returns to the family on Reservation Road as they attempt to start over in the Northwest Corner (Random House). Kevin Wilson introduces The Family Fang, a winningly bizarre clan on the brink (Ecco). Alexandra Fuller gets back to her wacky family’s African roots in Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (Penguin). Steve Wick'sThe Long Night (Palgrave Macmillan) is a salute to journalist William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the

Third Reich. In The Rules of the Tunnel (Gotham), V.F. contributing editor Ned Zeman recounts his tumble down the rabbit hole of depression, and the therapy that would erase two years of memory, forcing him to use his skills as a reporter to reconstruct his life, and in the process re-examine what makes life worth living.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL

Debut novelist Amor Towles presents the Rules of Civility (Viking Adult). Yochai Benkler promotes cooperation in The Penguin and the Leviathan (Crown Business). Isabel Gillies goes from heartbreak to happiness in A Year and Six Seconds (Voice). Paul Maher Jr. edits interviews with Tom Waits on Tom Waits (Chicago Review Press). Former spy Matthew Dunn turns novelist with Spycatcher (HarperCollins). Ana Menendez's stories bid Adi os, Happy Homeland! (Black Cat). Joby Warrick nails the al-Qaeda mole turned The Triple Agent (Doubleday). Thomas Kiedrowski tours Andy Warhol's New York City (Little Bookroom). Michael Holroyd turns out A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Kenyan firebrand Binyavanga Wainaina makes good on his promise in One Day I Will Write About This Place (Graywolf).

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